What's next after onboarding at work?
It's becoming excellent, then getting promoted until you're distinguished
Klarna, like many other companies, has a Competence Mastery framework. At H&M we called it a Career Framework. The purpose is to guide you from one level to another, i.e. improve your skills and get a promotion. For the curious, this is what the progression looks like at Klarna for product design individual contributors
Product Designer I
Product Designer II
Senior Product Designer
Lead Product Designer
Principal Product Designer
Senior Principal Product Designer
Distinguished Product Designer
For the past 5 months, I have been focusing on onboarding and getting used to working at Klarna, but with the 6-month probation almost over, and the new year approaching, I think it's time to turn a new page and start thinking about how I can go from a Senior Product Designer to a Lead Product Designer.
The first step, however, is to become an excellent Senior Product Designer. It is from my base as a Senior Product Designer that I can become a Lead Product Designer - so that base better be sturdy.
So, what is stopping me from confidently claiming that I am an awesome Senior Product Designer? If we let the Competence Mastery decide, then it is because of these three statements/topics:
I influence team roadmaps and set the vision for long-term projects.
I contribute to the design organization’s growth and competence-wide initiatives
I demonstrate solid leadership skills and effectively partner with cross-functional stakeholders beyond my product team
I cannot confidently say that I have done this or cannot clearly point to an example of it for my manager to go "Oh, yes, Dan really did that".
And that's the other part, it will be my manager who will decide to put me up for promotion or not. From what I understand, each manager will nominate from their reportees who they consider should get promoted, and then they debate battle other managers at some kind of design council. And how do they win the battle? Through facts and evidence. Now, this might be based on vague explanations and my imagination, but yes, it's kind of like an election and debate.
Anyway, for each of the statements/topics in the Competence Mastery, I need to understand how my manager interprets them so we are aligned, and then be on the lookout for opportunities to demonstrate each.
And I do have a lot of questions that I need to find out (not just from my manager)
How and when is the team roadmap and vision defined?
What is the competitive landscape? What are our strengths and weaknesses?
What is the design organization's goal?
What are the current competence-wide initiatives?
Who are the stakeholders I might work with?
Once I get the answers to these from my manager or someone else, I will have the puzzle pieces to take action. As I take action, I need to ask for as much feedback as possible to help me improve in each area. One way Julie Zhou recommends people to gather feedback is to share with people what you are practicing and that you'd appreciate feedback, good and bad, whenever they have any.
It's also helpful to ask people to pay attention to it right before you will demonstrate the skill. For example, before a meeting with cross-functional stakeholders, ask someone to pay attention to your leadership skills so that you can get feedback after the meeting.
In summary, I need to get answers to what I don't know, take action based on that, and get feedback to improve.
So, I guess this newsletter is about my journey of climbing the career ladder? Let's see where that takes us!